Hormones are crucial to your health and having the right amounts, signalling at the right times in the right places is the difference between feeling great and feeling like crap.
If you’re someone that values your health then I personally would recommend hormone testing. I typically test once every year or every couple of years just to see where I am at. And as of the recent times I have changed labs and tests.
For years I had been doing the Biohealth 205 which is a fantastic saliva test. However of the last few years Precision Analytics in Oregon have created the D.U.T.C.H test.
DUTCH is an acronym that stands for Dried Urine Testing for Comprehensive Hormones and is a simple test collecting four separate urine samples over the course of 14 hours, giving you even more information and actionable data as compared to saliva testing.
In today’s post I am going to give you seven reasons why hormone testing and more specifically the DUTCH test is kick-ass. Quite frankly there are hundreds of reasons to consider the DUTCH test but to cover that I would be here all day. That said see this as the tip of the iceberg.
Reason 1 – You’re tired all the time
No matter what, you are tired all the time. A solid eight hours sleep, you wake up and should be as chirpy as the birds but instead you feel like you have been hit by a train. Cortisol is both a stress hormone and an energy hormone as is made in the adrenal glands. If you are under any form of chronic stress then this will take it’s toll on the adrenal glands and often results in a tired, grumpy individual. Here is the thing to remember stress can come in many forms and is often HIDDEN that is…
- Hormone
- Immune
- Digestion
- Detoxification
- Environmental
- Neurotransmitter
So, even though you have a cruisey job and you don’t have to worry about the traffic in Hawkes Bay, it doesn’t mean stress isn’t taking it’s toll on you.
The DUTCH test is kick-ass when it comes to measuring cortisol as it is the only available test that measures both free and metabolism cortisol. This information is something you can’t get from blood or saliva and is critical for protocols.
Reason 2 – You can’t lose weight
No matter what you do, it just doesn’t seem to budge. It’s kind of like planting a garden. You need sunshine and water as requirements to grow just like exercise and diet are required for fat loss. But even with all the sunshine and water in the world, if the soil isn’t healthy then the garden just isn’t going to grow. As in with all the right exercise and great nutrition, if the hormones aren’t balanced then fat loss is going to be hard or even impossible.
There are hundreds of possibilities to potential hormonal weight loss blockages but a quick example is the blood sugar management system.
- Sensing stress, the hypothalamus secretes corticotropin release hormone and sends a signal to the nearby pituitary gland
- The pituitary then produces ACTH and sends it all the way down to the adrenal glands
- The adrenals go to work and start making cortisol where it can metabolise and start making fuel for the body to respond. That is Fight or Flight
Now if the body is making all this fuel but it isn’t getting used then it’s getting stored. Not good if you’re trying to lose the body fat 🙁
Reason 3 – You have family history of breast cancer or cervical cancer
We know that excessive estrogen or estrogen dominance has a correlation to cancer but the DUTCH test really comes into it’s own here. One of the coolest things about the DUTCH test is that it looks at estrogen metabolism.
Estrogen is kind of a ‘use it and lose it’ hormone. For optimal health we need to get rid of spent estrogen which is done primarily through the liver which then sends it to the colon for removal. There are two phases of estrogen metabolism 2, 4, and 16 hydroxy estrone. This is known as phase one and Methylation which is the second phase estrogen detoxification process.
In phase one you are looking for at least 70% of your estrogen to breakdown to 2-OH as this is the protective estrogen metabolite.
On the flipside of the coin too much 4-OH is ‘potentially’ highly cancerous. About 80% of cancer is estrogen receptor positive.
When I see this on a DUTCH test, it’s a little worrying
Reason 4 – You have family history of prostate cancer
One of the primary metabolites of testosterone is dihydrotesterone (DHT), which is believed to be one of the primary risk factors for prostate cancer in men.
Reason 5 – You’re suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
Irregular periods, no periods or painful periods. Unexplained weight gain, acne, grumpy and short tempered and fertility problems.
Typically PCOS sufferers will have high levels of testosterone and be androgen dominant. Again the beauty of the DUTCH test is that we can see how one is metabolising their testosterone. Is it more down the 5 beta reductase or more down the highly androgenic 5 alpha reductase pathway. It’s with this information that we can put protocols in place to rebalance hormones and get you feeling better.
Potent, powerful and proven supplements like Douglas Laboratories Testo Quench and a few lifestyle modifications can be a game changer for many PCOS sufferers
(please note, that TestoQuench is a practitioners only supplement and I will only recommend once you have completed a DUTCH test and we have all the information first)
Reason 6 – You’re suffering from Hirsutism
Often Hirsutism goes hand in hand with PCOS. Typically there are two reasons why people suffer from hirsutism. The first is they have high levels of androgen hormones that are metabolised down the 5 alpha reductase pathway. The second is a relatively high level of androgen hormones. That is when progesterone and estrogen bottom out and leave testosterone relatively high as a comparison. This pattern is often the case in menopause and the reason why you see granny with a few white whiskers.
Again, no need to suffer. 5a reductase inhibitors can be incredibly helpful.
Substances that inhibit 5α -reductase :
- Saw Palmetto
- Astaxanthin
- Stinging Nettles
- Pygeum
- EGCG (from green tea)
- Beta-Sitosterol (the specific plant sterol found in saw palmetto)
- Flax Lignans / High Lignan Flax Oil
- GLA: Evening Primrose Oil, Borage Oil, Blackcurrant Seed Oil
- Reishi Mushroom
- Nutrients: zinc, riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
- Foods: pumpkin seeds, spearmint tea, green tea, rosemary, MCT/coconut oil, ground flax seeds
Reason 7 – You’re struggling to get pregnant
If a woman does not ovulate or does not ovulate very well, her progesterone levels will not be healthy or may be low, thus reducing her chances of implantation and increasing her risk for miscarriage. If her estrogen is not healthy, she may not stimulate the luteinizing hormone surge to stimulate ovulation, thus not releasing an egg. A woman with high levels of estrogen may experience common ‘estrogen dominance’ symptoms such as breast tenderness, mood swings, and heavy bleeding. If her phase two estrogen detoxification is not appropriate, this may indicate a bigger issue with folate which is so critical to fetal development.
To conclude
As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, this really is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many reasons for considering the DUTCH test. And quite frankly unless you’re testing your just guessing. For more information please email us fitnesscamp@hotmail.com
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